BF2S Forums Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 or PowerColor Radeon HD 3850 "PCS" 512MB, GDDR

umm cruz the 3850 is only PCI-E not AGP. if you can provide the links to the cards that your looking at please do and we can help you

Only difference seems to be the cooling. The PowerColor one has a bigger cooling system. But I don't think it'd be worth it, just buy the cheaper one, and if you really want to overclock, go for it, you probably won't need that cooling thing unless you're gonna do long-ass gaming sessions.

I have a Radeon HD 3850 512MB, and I used the ATi tool to overclock it to the max and didn't have any problems.

Dragonclaw wrote:

Upgrading AGP is not worth it IMO. Get a new mobo with PCI-e or your choices are severely limited. The HD3850 AGP is weaker than the PCI-E version from what Ive read. Why do you still have AGP?

like any1 else they prolly dont have that much to spend on a new system

CrazeD wrote:

Powercolor sucks, get Sapphire.

GFT. DON'T GET THE POWERCOLOR!
I know 10 guys who had to RMA their Powercolor HD 38x0 series cards that had that cooler. One guy even bought 4 of them and withing a week two of them started to die and he had to downclock them a lot to make them work again. Looks like the memory cooling on those cards simply can't handle it. And oh boy about the fan noise those coolers make.... you can't manually change the fan speed so it always works at 100%. You can guess what that sounds like.
conclusion: Powercolor hd 38x0 series are teh fail...

Last edited by GC_PaNzerFIN (2008-02-10 03:19:42)

GC_PaNzerFIN wrote:

CrazeD wrote:

Powercolor sucks, get Sapphire.

GFT. DON'T GET THE POWERCOLOR!
I know 10 guys who had to RMA their Powercolor HD 38x0 series cards that had that cooler. One guy even bought 4 of them and withing a week two of them started to die and he had to downclock them a lot to make them work again. Looks like the memory cooling on those cards simply can't handle it. And oh boy about the fan noise those coolers make.... you can't manually change the fan speed so it always works at 100%. You can guess what that sounds like.
conclusion: Powercolor hd 38x0 series are teh fail...

Not entirely true. Check out this review of the Powercolor 3870 Passive Cooled. It's cooled by Powercoloers own cooler and not from Artic Cooling like usual.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powe … CS3/1.html

I'd still go with Sapphire, or HIS. Those are pretty much the only reliable manufacturers for ATi.

_NL_Lt.EngineerFox wrote:

.Sup wrote:

Sry to interrupt but is there a good aftermarket cooler for the new hd3870x2 yet? Just curious.

http://i28.tinypic.com/34ismyp.jpg
Watercooled yes

now THAT is sweet! But will cost a lot right?

_NL_Lt.EngineerFox wrote:

GC_PaNzerFIN wrote:

_NL_Lt.EngineerFox wrote:

http://i28.tinypic.com/34ismyp.jpg
Watercooled yes

now THAT is sweet! But will cost a lot right?

'No price or date yet'

Yes i know a watercooled solution exists but i never had the balls to go for watercooling so i always went for air cooling-no real maintenance needed.

wah1188 wrote:

GC_PaNzerFIN wrote:

CrazeD wrote:

Powercolor sucks, get Sapphire.

GFT. DON'T GET THE POWERCOLOR!
I know 10 guys who had to RMA their Powercolor HD 38x0 series cards that had that cooler. One guy even bought 4 of them and withing a week two of them started to die and he had to downclock them a lot to make them work again. Looks like the memory cooling on those cards simply can't handle it. And oh boy about the fan noise those coolers make.... you can't manually change the fan speed so it always works at 100%. You can guess what that sounds like.
conclusion: Powercolor hd 38x0 series are teh fail...

Oh noes I got a powercolor 3850! Is it ok if you just don't overclock?

I had a powercolor 9800pro, was the best card at the time. I had to change it twice at the end i upgraded to x800pro that was just released. Apparently the whole series of 9800pro's made in certain time frame were defective.

_NL_Lt.EngineerFox wrote:

.Sup wrote:

_NL_Lt.EngineerFox wrote:

'No price or date yet'

Yes i know a watercooled solution exists but i never had the balls to go for watercooling so i always went for air cooling-no real maintenance needed.

You can try putting 2 Zalman VF-700's on each Core but I do not say that it will work on a 3870X2.

I was hoping on a big coller so i can put a 120mm fan on it.

.Sup wrote:

_NL_Lt.EngineerFox wrote:

.Sup wrote:

Yes i know a watercooled solution exists but i never had the balls to go for watercooling so i always went for air cooling-no real maintenance needed.

You can try putting 2 Zalman VF-700's on each Core but I do not say that it will work on a 3870X2.

I was hoping on a big coller so i can put a 120mm fan on it.

You cant put a 120MM fan on a video card. What are ya crazy man?

.Sup wrote:

Dragonclaw wrote:

.Sup wrote:

I was hoping on a big coller so i can put a 120mm fan on it.

You cant put a 120MM fan on a video card. What are ya crazy man?

Ofc you can. my friend put one on his gtx and Thermalright cooler. I would like to do the same.

I dont know the exact layout of the Thermaltake coolers and 3870X2 but Zalman's site said a FS-V7 Fatal1ty cooler wouldnt fit a X1950 and it did so anything is possible.